Grants Development Office

Congratulations to Todd Ellis (PI) and Jerome Blechman (Co-PI), Earth Sciences Department, on the news that their project entitled “Improving the Use of Computer Data Analysis Skills in Undergraduate Meteorology” has been funded by a $199,592 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Program.
The primary goal of this CCLI project is to develop new meteorology curriculum elements while performing a substantial overhaul of the computing facilities above and beyond the level of sophistication currently available at SUNY Oneonta. The advanced capabilities of these new facilities will allow meteorology students to learn new skills, while also benefitting non-majors by enabling incorporation of scientific inquiry into survey courses. Through this project, Drs. Ellis and Blechman will evaluate the effectiveness of these new curriculum elements and disseminate the results to the meteorology community.

The National Science Foundation (Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement [CCLI] Program) has awarded a grant of $164,753 in support of the project entitled “PREDICT: Predicting Results and Evaluating Data using Insights from Computational Techniques” under the direction of Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty members Jacqueline Bennett (PI), Kelly Gallagher (Co-PI) and Trudy Thomas-Smith (Co-PI).

PREDICT will provide SUNY Oneonta chemistry students with an enhanced understanding of the particulate nature of matter by using computational chemistry to visualize molecular properties and processes. Hands-on, student-focused investigations using computational chemistry software, combined with convenient around-the-clock access, will help students gain sufficient practice with these techniques so that they are able to delve beyond superficial analyses. In addition, the coordinated nature of our approach facilitates the students’ ability to transfer and develop skills throughout the entire undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Students’ improved ability to understand and explain chemical and physical phenomena, as well as their perceptions, will be assessed using both internal and external evaluation methods. By encouraging collaboration and interaction among students and faculty, we intend to develop students who are scientifically proficient, capable of working with peers, and able to explain the benefits of computational techniques. In the case of teachers, they will have the experience to discuss, and perhaps implement, computational techniques in their classrooms.

PREDICT will reach more than 750 individual students each academic year, including roughly 115 pre-service teachers who will be delivering science curricula to all K-12 levels. Science majors completing the courses impacted by PREDICT will go on to graduate study, teaching, or industry with an enhanced, first hand understanding of the application of computational techniques. Nonmajors will more easily visualize the microscopic interactions of matter, which will improve their scientific literacy and help them develop interpretive, interpolative, and extrapolative skills. Education majors will enter their profession with direct experience they can use as they educate future generations of scientists and citizens, and will have the opportunity to return to the SDC with their students to use these resources. All other materials developed will be freely available through the SUNY Oneonta Chemistry & Biochemistry Department website and linked through the National Science Digital Library database, making the project portable and capable of being implemented in most undergraduate curricula.

The SUNY College at Oneonta is the recipient of a $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation in support of The SUNY Oneonta Noyce Scholars Program, intended to address the challenge of preparing highly qualified high school science teachers for careers in high-need school districts. The program is under the direction of Dr. Paul Bischoff (Secondary Education) serving as Principal Investigator (PI), with co-PIs John Schaumloffel (Chemistry & Biochemistry), James Ebert (Earth Sciences), Todd Ellis (Earth Sciences), and Paul French (Physics & Astronomy).

Graduating with full-content degrees in both Adolescence Education and their chosen science discipline (Biology, Earth Sciences, Chemistry or Physics), SUNY Oneonta Noyce Scholars will gain a unique perspective from service in both high-need urban and rural districts, facilitated by summer experiences in New York City schools and by academic-year and summer experiences in rural schools within SUNY Oneonta’s geographic area. This will be bolstered by specialized coursework in both pedagogy and science content as well as experience with informal science education at the SUNY Oneonta Science Discovery Center and College Observatory, nationally recognized science museums, and more. The goal of the program is to prepare at least twenty-four (24) new teachers during the project period, a sustainable forty percent increase in the number of certified high school science teachers graduating from SUNY Oneonta annually. Additionally, on-campus pre-service and post-graduation in-service support for teachers will help guide them through the first years of their professional experiences in the classroom. This will lead to greater retention of, and success for, these teachers as they serve in challenging, high-need districts.

Dr. Donna Vogler, Associate Professor of Biology at SUNY College at Oneonta, has received a $25,000 award from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Research Grants Program. The 15-month field study entitled ”Non-wildlife-attracting Native and Naturalized Turf Species Suitable for Use on Airfields Managed for Wildlife Hazards in the Northeast” will be carried out at three local airfields by Dr. Vogler and graduate student Kristin Dorsch. The three cooperating airports involved in the study are the Oneonta Municipal Airport, Griffiss International Airport in Oneida Co. NY, and the Elmira-Corning Regional Airport in Chemung Co. NY. Five species of native plants that can tolerate the dry conditions of the airfields will be compared against a commonly used turf mix for their potential to attract (or deter) wildlife.

The special advantage of native grasses is that many species contain more roughage and are less attractive to birds and other wildlife than the typical species used to establish grassy areas along runways. Annually, birds and other wildlife strikes cost the U.S. civil aviation industry over $620 million from aircraft damage and place human life in jeopardy during landings and take-off. Wildlife hazards are of special concern for general aviation airports located in rural areas adjacent to wildlife friendly agricultural land where deer, geese, turkey and coyotes are common. The five species tested will be Indian grass, Crinkled Hairgrass, Poverty Oats, Little Bluestem, and a mat-forming species of Thyme. Standard turf mixes frequently contain species such as Clover and Bluegrass which establish easily, but are very attractive to grazing animals.

In May of this year field plots were established at the Oneonta Municipal Airport, and the others will be set up in early June. Once the plants have sprouted, Vogler and Dorsch will begin monitoring for wildlife attraction by insects, birds and mammals. The overall goal of the project is to provide recommendations to airports that can be used as part of a plan for wildlife hazard management. However, results of the project may be of interest to other venues with similar problems with wildlife attraction, such as along busy roadways or golf courses.